Bringing in leads is important, but only a small percentage will be ready to make a purchase. For the rest of your leads, nurturing is essential. Some prospects will be persuaded to buy your product after a few short interactions while others will need more time. Even if you don’t convert a lead right away, keeping them engaged offers benefits, such as improved brand awareness and more referral power.
How do you know which lead nurturing tactics work best? Different approaches work for different people, which is why you should test and measure your results. To get you started on the right foot, here are four successful lead nurturing methods to turn to.
Strategy 1. Targeted Content
In this method, your goal is to nurture leads with personalized content. Not all leads are the same, so content written for specific audiences is the most effective way to communicate. This customized content is engaging and shows customers that you understand their needs.
In order for this strategy to work, you must define your buyer personas. Who are you writing to? What pain points does your product solve? What makes your service better than your competitors? As you define your personas, be sure to have a marketing automation platform that will make it easy to identify, segment and target the right groups of people.
Strategy 2. Personalized Emails
Email marketing offers an excellent return on investment. Luckily, there are dozens of ways to personalize emails and see a better response from your leads. One of our favorites is a triggered email campaign. With this setup, you send emails to people based on their behaviors.
For example, if a visitor comes to your website and downloads an eBook, it triggers a series of emails that will be sent to them. These emails contain timely, engaging content and are delivered at relevant times. The benefit to this strategy is that the heavy lifting is done for you. The emails nurture the lead while you focus on other aspects of your business, such as closing sales.
Strategy 3. Multi-channel Lead Nurturing
You can’t be successful using just one form of nurturing. If you limit yourself to email, for example, you’re missing out on other opportunities to connect with leads. A multi-channel nurturing strategy combines all nurturing efforts such as social media, retargeting, email marketing, and direct sales. Having a subtle but powerful presence in these areas allows you to be efficient in moving leads further down the funnel.
For multi-channel lead nurturing to work, your sale and marketing teams must be on the same team. These departments can have a hard time agreeing on things, but the faster they see eye-to-eye, the faster you will see improved conversions and sales. We recommend that marketing and sales teams create a formal marketing service level agreement (SLA) that can get everyone on the same page.
Strategy 4. Timely Follow Ups
Reaching out to leads early on is another lead nurturing strategy that can have a significant impact on your bottom line. Not all leads will be ready to convert, but having a personal conversation through phone or email separates you from your competitors. By following up, you can introduce yourself, share additional information about your company, and give leads a more direct route to communication, such as a personal email or phone number.
There are many lead nurturing methods – these four will help you get started! For the best results, try a combination of strategies and always test and measure your campaigns to see what’s working and what’s not.
